This invention relates to recording and evaluating instruments and methods, and more particularly to recording and evaluating instruments and methods for facilitating interaction analysis in a student-teacher environment, especially for the purpose of teacher evaluation.
It is believed that a teacher's skill is measurable as a function of the teacher's contribution to a suitable learning environment and the quality of the material presented to the students. The latter parameter is within the province only of specialists in the several subject matter fields. According to one known approach, interaction analysis, the former parameter is determinable through the application of suitable instruments and related methods.
It is believed that a teacher's contribution to a suitable learning environment is understood from a measurement of behaviorial changes in the classroom as reflected in teacher-student interpersonal communication. The specific behavorial patterns that are relevant to interaction analysis are those interpersonal communications which have been determined to be meaningful to the learning experience: teacher demonstrations of interpersonal understanding, genuiness, and positive regard for student self-image. Aspy, D. N., Toward a Technology for Humanizing Education, Champaign, Ill., 1972, p. 118. The utility of these behavorial patterns is based on the student's need for understanding-level training, which involves the teaching of concepts and is to be contrasted with memory level training (rote memory exercises). Among the various means for evaluating classroom interaction (see Dorich, G. D. and Madden, S. K., Evaluating Classroom Instruction: A Sourcebook of Instruments, Reading, Ma., 1977) Flanders' matrix analysis is perhaps the best known. According to Flanders, teacher influence may be restrictive and direct or expansive and indirect. Restrictive, direct influence such as lecturing and expression of teacher opinion results in dependent behavior by the student. Expansive, indirect influence, such as teacher questioning that incites student response and teacher clarification of student ideas, promotes understanding and academic self-reliance. Flanders, N. A., Some Relationships Among Teacher Influence, Pupil Attitudes and Achievement, in Interaction Analysis: Theory, Research, and Application, ed. by Amidon & Hough, Reading, Ma., 1967, pp. 221-222.
Although Flanders' matrix analysis is among the evaluating means most readily adaptable to administrative teacher evaluation, it involves a highly complex procedure requiring observers to be extensively trained in identifying certain coded categories. Once being able to identify the code categories and having established a suitably rhythm for observing and recording, observers must practice first with audio-video tapes and then in actual classroom environments. Observers also must meet with one another to discuss standard observation procedures.
An illustrative partly-completed matrix is shown in FIG. 1. For convenience in discussion, an event is considered to be the transition from a previously-observed activity (behavior) to a presently observed activity over a definite, predetermined interval. The matrix comprises a plurality of boxes, each identified by its respective row and column. For example, the box in the upper right corner of the matrix is identified by the designation (1, 10), where the numeral 1 represents the first row, and the numeral 10 represents the tenth column.
The procedure governing Flanders' matrix analysis is as follows. Events are recorded by hand on a matrix by transcribing tallies in respective boxes of the matrix. An observation of classroom activity is made at the end of an interval of time, measured in accordance with the observer's rhythm. The observed activity is mentally categorized and the respective column of the matrix is identified in accordance with the category selected. The category of the previously-observed activity is recalled, and the respective row of the matrix is identified accordingly. A tally is entered in the box defined by the identified row and column. In short, previously-identified activities are represented by category codes identified with the ordinate axis, and presently-identified activities are represented by category codes identified with the abscissa axis. Each event is accordingly recorded.
The first row and box (8, 8) of the matrix of FIG. 1, for example, would have been generated from the following activities having occured at some time during a period of evaluation:
______________________________________ Activity Followed by Recorded in Type Activity type Box Location ______________________________________ 1 1 on two occasions (1, 1) two tallies 1 2 (1, 2) one tally 1 3 on two occasions (1, 3) two tallies 1 4 never (1, 4) empty 1 5 (1, 5) one tally 1 6 on four occasions (1, 6) four tallies 1 7 (1, 7) one tally 1 8 on two occasions (1, 8) two tallies 1 9 (1, 9) one tally 1 10 on four occasions (1, 10) four tallies 8 8 on ten occasions (8, 8) ten tallies ______________________________________
For example, if 8 represents a teacher lecture, every sequence of lecture followed by lecture in one observation interval would be marked by a tally in box (8, 8). Ultimately, the evaluator compares total student behaviors with total teacher behaviors to determine the percentage of student behaviors relative to teacher behaviors in the classroom. The analyst also determines how much of the teacher's time involved direct influence (lecture, directions, opinions) and how much involved indirect influence (questions, answers, responses to answers, discussion).
Although the Flanders system is a thorough research took, it is impractical as a teacher evaluation tool because of its complexity and multiplicity. It is desirable that an instrument for recording and evaluating a teacher's contribution to a suitable learning environment be reliable and easy to use with a minimum of observer training. It is desirable that such a recording and evaluating instrument objectively identify and measure the percentages of direct and indirect teacher influence. It is also desirable that such a recording and evaluating instrument provide an accurate and durable record of the activities occurring during a period of evaluation so that an education administrator or evaluator will have concrete evidence to support an evaluation and a convenient tool with which to counsel the teacher to improve the learning environment in that teacher's classroom.
It is known in non-analogus disciplines to provide accurate and durable records of event sequences in continuous fashion by use of so-called "strip-chart" recorders. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,284,521, issued to Williams on Nov. 12, 1918, discloses a device for use in determining and recording the time consumed in performing various motions or acts. A stylus is moved intermittently one step at a time transversely across a record strip by depressing and releasing a finger key. Each transverse sweep of the stylus indicates only that a different task is taking place for the length of time indicated by the respective following longitudinal portion of the record line. The task is not uniquely identified. U.S. Pat. No. 1,138,226, issued to Kenney on May 4, 1915, discloses a marine speedometer which produces a graphic record of the period of time over which a particular forward or backward speed is maintained and identifies the speed. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,181,728, issued to Greentree on Nov. 28, 1939, a traffic analyzer is disclosed which counts moving vehicles and records their speeds. The passage of each axle of a vehicle produces a single respective line in a section of the record tape, the speed of each vehicle being distinguished by the length of the respective lines. Another section of the record tape contains an indication of the time during which the observed events occur.